Almost half of teachers fear looking like “cheats” when using artificial intelligence in the classroom, a survey shows.

And 44 per cent also feel they are “not doing their job properly” when using artificial intelligence (AI) for core teaching tasks, according to the YouGov poll.

The survey, which was carried out for the annual education technology exhibition Bett and is part of a wider report, polled 1,023 teachers on how they are using AI in their work.

It comes after the Department for Education released guidance for schools on using AI, which it said can cut teachers’ workload.

The government has pledged to invest an extra £1 million to accelerate the development of AI tools to help teachers with marking and generate detailed, tailored feedback for individual students.

Teachers worry about their AI knowledge

The survey suggests that 52 per cent of schools have now officially adopted AI - a rise from 31 per cent in 2024.

Only 26 per cent of teachers use it on a weekly basis, while just 8 per cent use it every day.

Teachers in the survey expressed concerns about “feeling intimidated” by their students’ superior AI knowledge, with a quarter of them worried about the growing gap between students’ AI abilities and their own.

Teachers’ fears about the growth of AI in education were expressed in a report by The Sutton Trust this summer.

But many teachers in the Bett survey who reported using AI said they felt less stressed as a result (49 per cent of respondents), and a significant number said they felt empowered because of the technology (34 per cent).

However, almost half of teachers reported that they had received no support with AI from their schools.

The Department for Education has been contacted for comment.

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